NEWSGedolei Yisroel Are The Only Ones With Authority To
Determine How Converts Are Accepted

By Betzalel Kahn

"If we don't wake up in time we will find ourselves in a
situation where conversion certificates will be worthless.
Nobody has authority to change the procedures for conversion.
Gedolei Yisroel are the only ones with authority to
determine the procedures that allow converts to be accepted
into the Jewish people." This is the message that emerged
from a meeting called by Netzach Mishpachat Yisroel
(Eternal Jewish Family), in which a number of dayanim
and rabbonim of towns ion Israel took place.

Also participating in the meeting, which was held in
Yerushalayim, was the chairman of the organization's
rabbinical committee, Rav Leib Tropper, who was in Eretz
Yisroel last week. In the course of his visit Rav Tropper
called at the homes of the gedolei Yisroel whom he
consulted on questions that have come before the
organization's rabbonim involving the complex issues
surrounding conversion. In his opening remarks at the
meeting, Rav Tropper addressed the threats to conversion
procedures in Eretz Yisroel, including those posed by
the Russian immigrants' Yisrael Beiteinu party.

He continued by surveying the proposals that have been
formulated with the guidance of the gedolei Yisroel
and mentioned in his discussions with the Chief Rabbinate.
Among other measures, it has been decided to place special
emphasis on studying the halachos of conversion for
the exams set by the Rabbinate to assess candidates'
suitability to serve as dayanim. The Chief Rabbinate
approved this proposal after the gedolei Yisroel had
given it their blessing.

Rav Tropper also announced that at the beginning of the
winter a seminar is to be held in Israel for families where
one member of the couple is a candidate for conversion. The
organization has held and continues to hold such seminars
outside Israel. They afford an opportunity for gauging the
seriousness of a candidate's intentions and for the
organization's rabbonim to extend personal guidance and
counsel.

Rabbi Mordechai Neugreschel drew participants' attention to
the serious dimensions of the intermarriage crisis that has
emerged as a national problem in Israel as well. At the same
time he stressed that there are righteous converts who
sincerely desire to draw close to Judaism and in these cases
our role is to direct them. This work is done by the capable
rabbonim of Netzach Mishpachat Yisroel who, besides
being involved in the struggle to prevent breaches in the
acceptance of converts, serve as an address for all who seek
to join the Jewish People in accordance with authentic
halochoh.

The chairman of the organization's Halochoh Committee in
Eretz Yisroel, HaRav Shmuel Eliezer Stern attacked the
existing institutional apparatus for not doing enough to rein
in the phenomenon of indiscriminate conversions. "Although
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar tries with all his might to repair
the breaches, his hands are tied," said HaRav Stern, who
expressed his astonishment at how it was possible to remain
sanguine when the Jewish nation's future is imperiled.

Rav Eliyahu Haishrick, a dayan on the Rabbinical
Beis Din of Beer Sheva, disclosed the astounding
contents of the minutes of a meeting of a Knesset Committee,
at which one of the Knesset members demanded leniencies in
the procedures for carrying out conversions, while the
rabbinate's representatives who were present voiced no
protest whatsoever. "Instead of closing down the Conversion
Administration, a body whose existence is entirely
unjustified, they demand `the updating of the botei
din' and their transformation into the former
institution," Rav Haishrick argued. He proposed that the
Knesset members be made aware of the seriousness of their
suggestions, which ultimately harm the converts
themselves.

Rav Nochum Eisenstein, chairman of the Vaad HaRabbonim
Haolami LeInyonei Giyur founded by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth
zt'l, rov of Antwerp, which works hand-in-hand with
Eternal Jewish Family, presented harsh figures illustrating
the extent of the fictitious conversions that are carried out
in Eretz Yisroel.

The rov of the Hermon Approaches region in the North
Rav Yisroel Roshetsky, the rov of Kiryat Ono and a
member of the Chief Rabbinate Rav Ratzon Aroussi and the
rov of Yavneh Rav David Abuchatzeira, also addressed
the meeting, as did Rav David Azran, a member of Eternal
Jewish Family's Rabbinical Committee, who read out a
letter from Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to the organization's
rabbonim.

The Chief Rabbi of Ashdod, HaRav Yosef Sheinin summed up the
meeting with a warning to rabbonim of cities to be on the
watch for supposed converts with forged certificates. Failure
to notice to these individuals can result in the rov bearing
responsibility for the serious consequences.